'Civil servants' capacity building to involve latest Geospatial tech'

New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday said the civil servants' capacity building will involve the latest GeoSpatial technology.

The minister said that GeoSpatial technology is "one of the most recent technologies available to us and the world".

Singh said: "The National Institute of Geo-Informatics Science and Technology (NIGST) has the potential and expertise in Geospatial technologies to play a pivotal role in building the civil service.

"As per National Geospatial Policy (NGP) 2022, online courses in geospatial science and technology areas are to be made available through iGoT Karmayogi platform," he said.

The Minister visited the facilities of the institute in Hyderabad and interacted with the faculty and trainees there.

During an interactive session at NIGST, he said that NIGST can augment the civil service training eco-system with competencies and role-based education in the areas of Basic GIS, Drone Survey & Mapping, GIS Analysis, Land Surveying, Cadastral Mapping, GNSS Surveying, Digital Mapping, LIDAR Mapping, Utility Mapping, 3D-City Mapping, Geoid Modeling, CORS Network etc.

The Union Minister said that the restructuring process of NIGST is underway to achieve the objectives outlined by the government and actions have been initiated for capacity expansion and improvement in the training quality with modernisation of facilities including Digital Classrooms, Labs, Field instruments, Practical Field surveying exercises, Hostel facilities, etc.

Singh said that the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has approved and implemented the new institutional governance system with the Board of Governors, Board of Evaluation and Board of Studies.

NIGST (earlier known as Indian institute of Surveying and Mapping or IISM) is a surveying and mapping training institute under the Survey of India known for short-term and long-term training and capacity building over the past 50 years to various countries (like Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Oman etc.), Central and the state ministries, agencies, security agencies, private industry, etc.